106 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



De drouf hit parched our crop at fust 

 En de rain done drown it now. 



De cawn jis want some 'scuse to quit, 

 En cotton's a regular chile 

 But de sun kin scawch and de rain can spit, 

 But de crab grass wears a smile. 



In the Mexican boll weevil cotton possesses a scourge 

 greater than that attacking almost any other crop. Its 

 total destruction of cotton has been without a doubt 

 immense. The opinion, however, is held by some agricul- 

 tural economists that the boll weevil has been the eco- 

 nomic salvation of the industry. When it has brought 

 better prices to the crop by keeping down overproduc- 

 tion and by forcing many farmers to diversify, it has 

 accomplished that which generations of preaching and 

 teaching had failed to do. It has even been said that 

 as long as cotton acreage remains uncontrolled, seri- 

 ously to wage war against the boll weevil is economic 

 treason. Regardless of the fallacy in raising crops to 

 feed bugs, the argument would be sounder had the weevil 

 loss fallen with equal severity upon all the growers. It 

 is commonplace to point out that high prices for cotton 

 in one section have been attained at the expense of 

 farmers who have had their crop almost totally wiped 

 out in other sections. The reduction has not been evenly 

 distributed. 



The future of the weevil in the American cotton fields 

 is difficult to predict. In the last few years there has 

 existed the tendency to depend more upon cultivation 

 and "forcing" methods and less upon doctoring in at- 

 tempts to beat the weevil. The weather is easily the most 

 important and the most variable factor. Conditions of 



